SONOMA, Cali — Marcos Ambrose, driver of the No. 9 Stanley Tools Ford for Richard Petty Motorsports was fastest in first practice Friday at Sonoma Raceway in Sonoma, Cali with a speed of 94.049.
Juan Pablo Montoya was second quickest, with a speed of 93.890.
Casey Mears, Kurt Busch, and Jamie McMurray conclude the top five in speed. Speeds from this session will be used to group drivers for qualifying.
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In group qualifying, cars will be assigned to one of five or six groups based on practice speeds, slowest to fastest. Within those groups, cars will be separated fastest to slowest and released at intervals. Each group will have a window in which cars can complete their qualifying each likely receiving three laps at full speed. A car’s fastest lap will count and the field will be set based upon overall qualifying speeds. The process has been used previously for NASCAR Nationwide Series road course qualifications.
All practice speeds below.
Qualifying will be Saturday afternoon at 2:00pm EST, live on SPEED.
